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The United States, with a score of 83.8, topped the rankings of the G20 countries in terms of national innovation competitiveness in 2009, followed by Japan (53.0) and Germany (52.6), according to the Report on the Group of Twenty (G20) National Innovation Competitiveness Development (2001-2010) released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) yesterday.

The report, the first of its kind in China, measures the national innovation competitiveness of 19 of the G20 countries, except the EU, between 2001 and 2009, based on their performances in the following five major areas: innovation foundation, innovation environment, innovation input, innovation output and innovation sustainability.

The report reveals that, between 2001 and 2009, most of the 19 G20 countries scored increasingly higher points in their innovation competitiveness. China showed the fastest growth, with a 10.8-point increase from 23.3 in 2001 to 34.1 in 2009. The United States and Japan, though ranked top, saw their scores drop by 5.0 points and 5.5 points, respectively, indicating that the gap between them and the other G20 countries is being narrowed.

China, at the 10th place, is the only developing country to edge into the top 10 among the G20 countries. The country ranked 12th in 2001 when it entered the WTO, and stayed at 11th for five years between 2002 and 2006. In 2007, it rose to the 10th and has remained there until now.

Compared to the developed countries, China is still weak in national innovation competitiveness, especially in the high and new tech industries. This situation is mainly caused by the high tax burden which has weakened the businesses' initiatives in carrying out innovation. In addition, lack of effective protection on the intellectual property rights also dampened enterprises' enthusiasm in enhancing R&D input.

Following are the rankings of the top 10 G20 countries in terms of national innovation competitiveness in 2009: